List: Mark Tremonti Shares Seven Essential Metal Records

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Listen to the precise thrash attack of All I Was, his incendiary solo debut. Tremonti's unchained completely, and he's unleashed one of the best metal records of the year and a landmark in his career thus far. He perfectly fuses together technical mastery and undeniable melodies.

Given his background, ARTISTdirect.com editor in chief Rick Florino spoke to Mark Tremonti about seven of his favorite metal records. Don't miss Tremonti on tour...

Reign In Blood has some of the best metal guitar riffs of all-time packed into one album. It's such a hardcore record. When that came out, it was about as heavy as things got. I absolutely love it. I was probably in sixth or seventh grade when I first heard them. My brother Dan was listening to them. A bunch of older kids in school were listening to them. I finally got Reign In Blood. That was the first Slayer album I heard, and I still think it's their best.

I loved the aggressiveness of it. I loved the vocals. I loved that there were straight melodies in there. At the time, I thought it was cool the guys in the band were young and still killing it. I was a young kid listening to it, and I thought, "These guys are only five years older than me. I can do this!"

It's definitely up there with Master of Puppets as well. I'm into really dark stuff sometimes. It's not that I'm a dark person. Just like reading a book, I like to get into the darker themes. These guys had some of the best chord progressions I'd ever heard. It was creepy at times, and I dug it.

My favorite King Diamond record would be Fatal Portrait. That was the first King Diamond album I'd bought. From that one, I bought the rest. After that, I'd say Abigail is my second favorite. All of the Mercyful Records like Don't Break the Oath are great. I think King Diamond's a genius. Some of his melodies are incredible. People might be close-minded about his vocal approach, but he's amazing. There are incredible musicians backing him up as well.